Cellist and music teacher Betty Pack is born

Updated: 11 Nov 2020

Cellist and music teacher Betty Pack, who started several youth orchestras, was born in Nylstroom, Transvaal. At the age of 16, she gave her first public performance of the Dvorak cello concert. A year later she was regarded in many quarters as an accomplished cellist. In 1950 Pack founded the Young South African Chamber Orchestra of which she was a conductor. During August, 1975, she was one of a group of instructors who accompanied the first South African Youth Orchestra to the International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Aberdeen (Scotland) and London. Her well-known Youth Orchestras and ensembles toured many European countries and the Middle East. However, her astonishing career was cut short due to her untimely death in 1977.

How we know this

01Sonderling, N.E. (ed) New Dictionary of South African Biography, v.2 , Pretoria: Vista.

Last updated · 11 Nov 2020

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Cellist and music teacher Betty Pack is born. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011425

South African History Online (2011) 'Cellist and music teacher Betty Pack is born', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011425 (Accessed: 7 October 2026).

South African History Online, Cellist and music teacher Betty Pack is born [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011425, (accessed 7 October 2026).

"Cellist and music teacher Betty Pack is born." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011425. Accessed 7 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "Cellist and music teacher Betty Pack is born." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011425.